ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>QUDRAT (spelled qudrati in gurb&#257&#7751&#299)</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="QUDRAT"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279QUDRAT (spelled <i>qudrati</i> in <i>gurb&#257&#7751&#299</i>), a term adopted by Gur&#363 N&#257nak from the Arabic and given a philosophical signification and connotation which, to some extent but with different shades of sense, had till then been conveyed by the milennia-old Indian words <i>pr&#257kriti</i> and <i>m&#257y&#257</i>. <i>Qudrat</i>, in Arabic, literally means power, might. In the Turkish language, the word came to mean power, strength, omnipotence of God, as also Creation. The same term, in Persian, denotes power, potency, authority of God, the Creation, Universe, Nature. In Arabic, the term <i>qudrat</i> connotes "that which is under the power and authority of" its Master, God, who, in the <i>Qur&#257n</i>, has been given the attributes of <i>al q&#257dir, al-q&#257d&#299r</i> (both standing for &#8220mighty") and al-<u>kh</u>&#257liq, Creator. Gur&#363 N&#257nak has employed the term <i>qudrat</i> to include both these Qur&#257n&#299c attributes of God, <i>al-q&#257dir</i> and <i>al-<u>kh</u>&#257liq</i>.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Gur&#363 N&#257nak employed the term <i>qudrat</i> to denote the idea of Divine might. There was presumably also the need to find a parallel for <i>prakriti</i> which in Indian thought was postulated as co-eternal with Puru&#7779a. Moreover, in Gur&#363 N&#257nak's vocabulary, parallels from Perso-Arabic sources are freely used as these were current among the common mass of people. This was also in keeping with his spririt of tolerance. Many examples such as <i>s&#257hib, p&#299r, m&#299r</i> and <i><u>kh</u>asam</i> can be cited. Gur&#363 N&#257nak's religious system, based on the One absolute Purakh as the matrix of the world, did not accept the dualism of <i>puru&#7779a</i> and <i>prakriti</i> of <i>S&#257&#7749khya K&#257rik&#257</i> which, broadly speaking, corresponds to the concepts of subject and object, or duality of mind and matter or life and nature. In his philosophical system, the world has a Creator, and Nature being what is created has no absolute basis independent of and apart from the Kart&#257 Purakh. Nature as such is merely an extension of or an emanation from Purakh. Neither the Vedic Puru&#7779&#257 nor the Puru&#7779a of S&#257&#7749khya is the Creator or Controller of the world. In Gur&#363 N&#257nak's system, He is both the Creator and the Controller. <i>Qudrat</i> is the created object, the Creator's might. Here <i>qudrat</i> stands for the material phenomena as well as for power, might, strength, wonder working omnipotence, the authority of God. In Gur&#363 N&#257nak's view, the potentiality and faculty of recreation as well as the varied forms and phenomena of the world are <i>qudrat</i> or <i>m&#257y&#257</i>. The term <i>m&#257y&#257</i> has been rendered as illusion, unreality, deception, material entanglements, etc. It is held to imply, so far as creation is concerned, the phantasmagoria or hallucination of appearances. In fact, in Indian philosophy, <i>m&#257y&#257</i> signifies the process by which unity becomes multiplicity and homogeneity heterogeneity, in the unfolding of the cosmos. It is the answer to the enigma of the multiplicity of forms, in which the world appears to us. God instantly creates uncountable forms through His power of <i>qudrat</i> "<i>anik r&#363p khin m&#257hi qudrati dh&#257rad&#257"</i>(GG,519).</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the compositions of Gur&#363 N&#257nak, as also of his successors in the holy office of Gur&#363ship, <i>qudrat</i> stands for what is meant in general by this term in India, Divine might. It had in that context a philosophical signification, but because of the term becoming common current coin, its philosophical reference was not called to mind, as also in the parallel case of <i>m&#257y&#257</i>. In a few contexts, Gur&#363 N&#257nak also used it in the extended sense of creation, of whatever is manifested by the operation of Divine might. In <i>V&#257r &#256s&#257</i> in the line <i>balih&#257r&#299 qudrati vasi&#257 ter&#257 antu na j&#257&#299 lakhi&#257</i> (GG,469) <i>qudrat</i> obviously implies what the Divine might has created, in what it is pervasive. In <i>M&#257jh k&#299 V&#257r</i>, line "<i>&#257pe qudrati s&#257ji kai &#257pe kare b&#299ch&#257ru"</i> (GG,143), again <i>qudrat</i> is creation, phenomena, the manifest world. Apart from a few such contexts, <i>qudrat</i> generally in <i>gurb&#257&#7751&#299</i> stands for Divine might. That is also the sense in which the generality of people in India use it. That only indicates that the Gur&#363 had adopted a term from common everyday usage that was familiar, and used it, without necessarily any thought of preferring it over <i>m&#257y&#257</i> on any philosophical grounds. As a matter of fact, the world of reference, the context and background of the two terms are distinct. <i>M&#257y&#257</i> has always a clear or implied ethico-philosophical meaning in <i>gurb&#257&#7751&#299</i>. Wherever it stands for phenomena, <i>qudrat</i> is used as a neutral term, free from any pejorative suggestion. Hence the two terms cannot be studied as parallel beyond a certain point.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Gur&#363 N&#257nak says that for millions and trillions of aeons there was utter darkness and only the Infinite One, in its unmanifest form existed, (GG,1035). However, then the unmanifest Real One, who is self-existent, created <i>qudrat &#257p&#299nai &#257pu s&#257jio &#257p&#299nai rachio n&#257u, d&#363&#299 qudrati s&#257j&#299ai kari &#257sa&#7751u &#7693i&#7789ho ch&#257u</i> (GG, 463). However, <i>qudrat</i> is intrinsically one with its Creator because the latter is manifest in it, though the two cannot be termed identical or co-eternal.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Gur&#363 N&#257nak also holds that <i>qudrat</i>, as power and might, acts as the regulator of the working of all the entities and forces of Nature. Fear or <i>bhay</i> controls all forces of Nature such as winds, waters, fires, the earth, clouds, sun, moon, the firmament, as also the <i>siddhas</i>, the <i>buddhas</i> and <i>yog&#299s</i> or heroes and brave warriors and ordinary people (GG, 461).</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib, creation has been accepted as real, true, mighty, sublime, wonderful and law-abiding, yet there is no tendency towards animation, personification or deification of the forces and manifestations of Nature, as has been the case with the Vedic deities or in Greek mythology. Nature worship, in any form, is non-existent in the Sikh faith. In that stanza of unsurpassed beauty and conception, in the <i>Sodar</i>, all forces of Nature such as water, wind, and fire, all gods such as &#346iva, Brahm&#257 and Vi&#7779&#7751u, such objects as the seas and mountains are shown as praising the Lord and working in unison, according to His will. However, it is not unoften that some instruction or inspiration has been drawn from certain relationships, existing or supposed to be existing, in nature and cosmos. But this tends towards poetic imagery and not towards philosophy or theology. No proofs have been set out in the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib for the existence of God, which has been accepted self evidently; but sometimes, cosmic reality and nature have been cited as proofs of the existence of the Supreme Consciousness working behind phenomena. The <i>l&#299l&#257</i>, play, <i>pas&#257r&#257</i>, expansion, <i>rachan&#257</i>, creation of <i>qudrat</i>, have come out of the <i>sunn</i> (&#346&#363nya), the vacuum which is filled with Divine Reality (GG,1037).</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Pann&#363, Harp&#257l Si&#7749gh, <i>Gur&#363 N&#257nak d&#257 Qudrat Sidh&#257nt </i>. Patiala, 1987<BR> <li class="C1"> Caveeshar, Sard&#363l Si&#7749gh, <i>Sikh Dharam Darshan </i>. Patiala, 1987<BR> <li class="C1"> Avtar Singh, <i>Ethics of the Sikhs </i>. Patiala, 1970<BR> <li class="C1"> Harbans Singh, ed., <i>Perspectives on Guru Nanak </i>.Patiala, 1975<BR> <li class="C1"> Pandey, R.R., <i>Man and the Universe </i>. Delhi, 1978<BR> <li class="C1"> Pritam Si&#7749gh, <i>Trinity of Sikhism </i>. Jalandhar, 1973<BR> <li class="C1"> Talib, Gurbachan Singh, <i>Guru Nanak, His Personality and Vision </i>. Delhi, 1969<BR> <li class="C1"> Wazir Singh, <i>Philosophy of Sikh Religion</i>. Delhi, 1981<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Gurbachan Si&#7749gh T&#257lib<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>